BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Baltimore is joining the countrywide push for healthy eating on national Food Day.

Andrea Fujii has more on how the city hopes to encourage residents to make smarter eating choices.

The city is receiving more than $2 million to promote its message of healthy eating.

Getting Americans to eat fresh, healthy food is the goal of national Food Day, and Baltimore is joining in on the effort.

“Having access to healthy diets, in combination with reducing things like diabetes and smoking in the end, will have people living longer,” said Dr. Oxiris Barbot, city health commissioner.

The initiative is starting with children. Eighty-three city schools are receiving a $1.7 million federal grant so they can eat fresh fruit and vegetables every day.

There is also a $759,000 federal grant to put a new grocery store in Howard Park, which is now considered a food desert. That means there isn’t a grocery store for residents within a mile.

“This is a great example of how a grocery store can increase communities’ access to healthy food as well as spur job creation,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

National Food Day is a grassroots movement spearheaded by the Center for Science in the Public Interest to encourage Americans to eat healthy food grown in a sustainable and humane way.

The Whitelock Community Farm in Reservoir Hill is trying to provide just that.

“Growing it in a way that is environmentally friendly and also socially just, so trying to take care of the people who are growing the food and the people who the food is grown for,” said Elisa Lane, Whitelock Community Farm.

It’s a major step toward getting good food into young mouths.

That new Howard Park grocery store is expected to open next year.

Food Day is being observed in more than 2,000 events across the country.